Harvey Weinstein lied about sleeping with Gwyneth Paltrow to attract other women, report says

Gwyneth Paltrow (L) poses with then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (C) and former Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein as they arrive for the premiere of "Shakespeare in Love" in New York on December 3, 1998. (Reuters)

Harvey Weinstein told women he slept with Gwyneth Paltrow to coerce them into having sex with him, according to a report in the New York Times.

Multiple women told the Times that Weinstein, 65, claimed he made Paltrow, 45, a star with “Shakespeare in Love” after she slept with him, insinuating that an affair with him could also result in stardom for them.

One woman, who accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in 2004, claimed that he kept a framed photo of Paltrow in his bedroom. Another who alleged that Weinstein sexually harassed her in 2000 said that Weinstein told her he’d been intimate with Paltrow and other stars.

“He’s not the first person to lie about sleeping with someone,” Paltrow said. “But he used the lie as an assault weapon.”

Paltrow told the paper she personally spoke to some of the women who Weinstein allegedly coerced with the lie, calling the incidents “devastating.”

The actress previously told the Times that Weinstein put his hands on her and suggested she give him a massage at his Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel suite when she was 22 years old, saying, “I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified.”

After her then-beau Brad Pitt confronted Weinstein over the incident, Paltrow claims the disgraced producer “screamed at [her] for a long time.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post.